How I Became a Legend

Okay, so I’m not really a legend. But you’ll see what I mean by the end of this post. It all starts with League of Legends.

League of Legends is one of those games that I was always aware of because people around me played it, but I never got into it. Why? Well, I had played tower defence-style games before (Bloons, anyone?), but I’d heard the community was—ah—lightly salted, if you will.

About 25% of it was that I was afraid I’d be a bad team player.

The other 75% was that I was afraid of the other players yelling at me. Which I was sure they would. And I’m a delicate little flower.

Eventually, though, I decided it really couldn’t be that bad, and I would face my fears and give the game a fair chance anyway.

Boy, did I have lots to learn.

Pick a lane!

My first mission was to figure out what the heck lanes were. Off to a good start, right?

I had no idea what anything meant or which characters were designed for which lanes, so I enlisted the help of the resident League master, Shane. After much discussion, we decided (or, more accurately, he decided and I agreed) that I would play support to his ADC, and that a character like Morgana would be good.

I did my homework, going through all of her abilities so I’d know what to do. I then promptly had all my carefully laid plans thrown out the window when we got to champion selection and realized that

I had no champions, and

Morgana was not on the free champion rotation that week.

Whoops.

In a bit of a panic, I picked Lux—and so began my first game.

Learning the ropes

At first, I was intimidated by the clock. I didn’t really have any concept of how much time I had, so I panicked and started playing without any idea what Lux did.

Word to the wise: don’t do that.

Seriously. Even if you have to spend a bit of game time in home base reading, instead of heading straight to lane, do it. You’ll be much more useful than I was at first.

Luckily, I managed to figure Lux out pretty quickly, and got good at trapping people so I could laser them. I did not make friends.

I got to about level 2 with Lux, and then another curveball came my way.

That’s a little fishy

Last week, Shane surprised me with a present: a brand-new champion to learn. It was Nami, his favourite support, and it was super-exciting for three reasons:

Fish puns

“Not me” puns

She’s a really, really good character

This time, before I dived in, I stopped and did my homework. I learned what Nami could do, went into a game, and quickly learned that Nami is all about skill shots so I could not do what she could.

It’s taken a lot of practice, and obviously at level 12 I am not good at it yet, but I’m learning—and I’m on my way to being a Legend.